Greetings from September and October!

Dear friends,

It's been a long time since I've updated my blog. So, now I try to cover up more things than usually.
How are you doing? I am doing rather well. I am in the new school. Learning about movies, making movies. New city, new flat, new place to live.
What have I done here so far?
Well, like I told in my last mail there was this little problem I encountered here: The school had taken already three directors to our group. They thought that that was enough. So they asked if I could consider doing more camerawork and editing. That was not cool with me because I had applied into that school with director/screenwriter role in my mind. In the exam I had done tasks that were tailored for students who are to specialize in directing/scriptwriting.
Well, Then we talked about it. And we talked a little bit more about it. Finally we, meaning teachers, myself and our group, came into a conclusion that I would be the fourth director in our group. I was happy about this. I hope I can fill these boots well.

Many things are different here compared to my life in Jyväskylä ( being in University and Steiner-school ) earlier. I don't have much old friends here. There is more work to be done for the school. There is more group-work here. The tasks we are doing are more artistic and creative by nature. I quess, all in all, I enjoy doing this type of work more than doing academic work, though academic work can be fulfilling too.

What kind of work have we been doing here? We have done scripts, story outlines. They look like comics. We did lot of those during the first few weeks. Then there is design/art classes- they resemble the classes I did back in art-college. Visual art.
Then there is camerawork, editing, movie-analysis and art-history.

I have done three short-films now. First assignment we got was to make a 1-minute documentary about this city-Lahti. No dialogue. I shot lot of material for that assignment. It was hard to decide which shots I should include. For me the first task was mostly about just learning how to use camera and editing-program.
Second assignment was to do a 1-minute film about some person I knew. No dialogue. I chose Asla, a five-year old boy, who is my friend Sanna's son. I enjoyed that task. I gathered lots of material for this film also. Again it was hard to edit it to one minute. I was quite pleased with the result though. The last project was a "free" one. Three minutes max. One could use music and dialogue. And this could be experimental too. I liked this project a lot. I went Jyväskylä to do it. Few of my friends helped me with it. I am thankful for them about this. I think the end result was pretty good, considering that none of us did not have much experience in doing movies. Tomorrow we have a critique for these 3-minute films. I am a little bit nervous about it.

The critique-sessions we have after the projects are finished are interesting ...and challenging. One hears the opinion of one's fellow students and Erkki's opinion. Erkki is our "head-teacher", the main-teacher sorta. Both he and other students are often honest and tough with their comments. This has been sometimes challenging for me. Maybe because I am myself very aware of all the areas I not so good at, and rather than getting that pointed out I would need encouragement and tips of how to do it better. The standards are the same for everyone regardless of our background. But some of us have more experience of doing movies than others. But I am not saying that this is necessarily bad.. how we are doing things here. I am just reflecting on how I've experienced it. And of course we also get "positive" feedback too here. It's not only about what does not work.

I've been watching plenty of movies here. In this school we also watch films in schooltime. We study them. Some good films I watched in September... Road to Guantanamo, Godfather 2, Innocence, Koyaanisqatsi, Battleship Potemkin and Citizen Kane.
Some good films I watched in October: Born in 4th of July, Heat, The Time of the Wolf, Clockers, Powaqqatsi, Devil wears prada.
These are not all good in same way of course. Some are more entertaining, some are more intense emotionally.

In October I had my 25th birthday. I had a party both in Jyväskylä and in Helsinki. It was so good to see all these friends together! Thank you everyone for coming. Now I have been here for one quarter of a century! I plan to stay here for quite a long time still. Lots has happened but even more is yet to happen in the future!

In October Mother Amma visited Finland again. I went to see her and hug her. She is known as the hugging saint. This was a very good weekend. It was very uplifting to be in that atmosphere.

That's going to be all for now, for I need to be awake tomorrow in the critique. However, I might loosen up a bit with my blog and write short updates and thoughts whenever I feel like it. Okay, we will see how it goes.
I hope you have had a good Autumn/Spring! Have a great day today! Lots of love and blessings to you my friend,

peace Lauri Anssi